


Good friends and fake friends

by Arwen88



Category: Generation Kill
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 10:24:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21097928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arwen88/pseuds/Arwen88
Summary: Then the whole mess with Tricia happened, as if Brad didn't had enough on his plate as they made camp in Pakistan, getting ready to invade Afghanistan. Ray was there to witness not only the moment Brad opened the e-mail his girlfriend sent him and started frowning at the monitor, but the moment he stood up to call back home, pale as a sheet.or "It was Ray the one who procured the alcohol after Brad got dumped while in Afghanistan"





	Good friends and fake friends

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the sweet ThrillingDetectiveTales for betareading this <3
> 
> The prompt comes from the new prompt meme Loose Lips Sink Ships! (Look it up, it's here: https://looselipssinkships.altervista.org)

Ray considered himself lucky that he had met and befriended Brad before the mess with Tricia had happened.

Ray thought Brad was a surprisingly deep guy when he wanted to be, when he wasn't busy screaming orders and training Ray and the other little shits the marines had sent to Camp Pendleton to be trained as recon marines.

Somehow they had started bonding in their free time, talking about computers and then movies. They had moved to talking about books and Ray was almost shocked to find out that Brad wasn't only well read, but surprisingly funny. He had already caught a glimpse of it by listening to the colorful insults Brad would throw around. Brad was one of the few officers that seemed to care about the soldiers under his orders, and the one Ray was glad he would be working under.

Brad had become his first real friend there, the guy actually teasing Ray on many subjects, but none of those sore spots that Ray had had to endure being the butt of in high school in that hole of city he came from.

Somehow, despite being his superior officer, Brad didn't mind letting Ray tease him in return when they were off duty. It was refreshing to have a friend like him.

Then the war started and Ray decided that if anything he was lucky to be going into it with a platoon leader that knew what he was doing. Not that Ray had envisioned himself going to war at all when he had enlisted just to avoid going straight into college, but there was no going back, and he wasn't really sure if he would have wanted to anyway.

Then the whole mess with Tricia happened, as if Brad didn't had enough on his plate as they made camp in Pakistan, getting ready to invade Afghanistan. Ray was there to witness not only the moment Brad opened the e-mail his girlfriend sent him and started frowning at the monitor, but the moment he stood up to call back home, pale as a sheet.

It wasn't difficult to gather the gist of what had happened and Ray gave his friend time until that night before he went looking for him, two beers the best he had managed to scrounge up.

Brad was sitting on his cot, staring in the empty air, his hands clenched and his shoulders pulled taut, a frighteningly blank expression on his face.

"Here." Ray held out one beer and Brad gazed at it for a moment before he took it, not even glancing up at Ray's face.

Ray stood there for a moment, slightly shifting on his feet while he wondered if it would have been better to walk away and leave him some space or if Brad would appreciate some company.

"Don't stand there like you have ants in your boots."

Ray cracked a smile and slowly sat beside him, opening his own beer to take a sip of it.

It wasn't much, but still it was alcoholic and sometimes it was clear something of the sort was needed.

He didn't expect Brad to tell him what his girlfriend had said, it was clear the she had probably dumped him.

For once they sat in silence, simply drinking together, until Brad stood up and took care of making the empty cans disappear.

"Thanks, Ray," he murmured, finally looking him in the face.

Ray looked up at him and simply shrugged, smiling softly. "What are friends for?"

But what he had said seemed to darken further Brad's mood, the man frowning slightly. "Yeah, right."

"Brad." He stopped, not knowing what to say to help him, and he simply worried his lip for a moment. "You know you can talk to me, right? If you need anything," he offered quietly.

Brad simply stared at him for the longest time, but then he gave a curt nod. "I know."

Ray knew something had changed that day, but it wasn't until they departed from Pakistan that the measure of it became clear to Ray. It was a bit jarring - if comforting from a survival point of view - to see how cold and focused Brad could be. It was clear there was nothing else but the mission in his mind, that he was ready to do what was needed at any given moment.

Brad had always been capable, almost disturbingly so, but the way he acted in Afghanistan was enough for the guys to name him Iceman. Which Ray thought was probably the coolest nickname, but it was also not the way his friend had been before that e-mail from his girlfriend.

It wasn't until they had completed their mission that Brad even spoke about it.

"She married my best friend."

"Who?" Ray asked without even looking up from the radio he was trying to fix for the hundredth time.

"Tricia."

It was quiet, but Ray heard the words and the hint of hollowness in his friend's voice. He couldn't help but turn to stare at Brad, still looking mighty involved in the book he was reading. Even though his eyes were still.

"What do you mean she married your best friend? The guy you said was like-" he stopped, not wanting to say "a brother" since he was hit by the sudden understanding that maybe this was exactly the person who had gone behind Brad’s back in the dirtiest way.

But Brad nodded his head. "She didn't say how long they've been at it, just that they were getting married. She thought it was fair for me to know." He snorted, a ugly bitter sound.

"Holy fuck, man," Ray whispered, slowly shaking his head. He couldn't believe that someone could have done such a thing to a guy like Brad, one put together and with a promising career in front of him, one that didn't go around playing with every passing pussy like some of the others did. He found himself staring at their radio, a chill spreading on his back at suddenly understanding the magnitude of the e-mail the woman had sent just before they were to go into enemy territory.

In Ray's opinion it was just a breath short of criminal to do such a thing and risk not only compromising a soldier’s focus and therefore his life, but in Brad’s case also the lives of the people under his command.

Playing Brad dirty was the most moronic decision those two could have made, in Ray’s opinion.

A fuck up, Ray would have understood, maybe. But not like that. And with his best friend. No wonder the man had barely spoken since that day, when he wasn't barking at Ray to stop chewing on his coffee grounds or orders at everybody else.

He kept quiet for a while but slowly he leaned sideways, pressing against Brad's shoulder. "Man, if you want Ray Ray to find some more beer for you just tell me so." He offered with a half smile, wiggling his eyebrows, and felt his heart ache a little bit when Brad seemingly relaxed beside him, even throwing him a glance.

"What would I do without my RTO?" Brad snorted softly, cracking a smile of his own for the first time in ages.

It was enough to make Ray feel better that he couldn’t just go home and punch those two people in the teeth. It was enough to make him vow to never do to his friend what the others had done.


End file.
